Problem in copying directory structure
 

Hi everyone.

I use

(cd /old/directory; find -type d ! -name .) | xargs mkdir

for copying directory structure into another location. It works.

Then I found a problem. If I have folder named "linux newbie", or another folder that use space character. It will be splitted into 2 folder, "linux" and "newbie".

Does anyone know how to repair my command? Please help me to modify my command.

Thanks

Hi and welcome!
Why don't you just rename your folder to linux_newbie,then your command will work.

thanks for your advisement :)

but i need to copying directory structure, without renaming any directory. is there another way? :confused:

cd $OLD_DIR && find . -type d ! -name . -exec mkdir $NEW_DIR/{} \;

To manage spaces inside file or directory names, you have to use the -print0 action of find and the corresponding -0 option of xargs. The former prints the path names terminated by a null character, the latter interprets arguments separated by a null character instead of the common field separators as blank space, tab and newline. You should end up with something like:
Anyway, I find more feasible to copy a directory structure using rsync, like this:

can is it possible to only copy the tree structure of the directory not the file content inside the directory to other directory.(Only tree structure of the directory).

Sorry, but is this a question or a comment? The topic of this thread is all about copying a directory structure and the rsync command I suggested does exactly what you're looking for. It includes directories '*/' and excludes files '*'.

My question, is it possible that the structure of the directory is constant i mean all the files are at the same position but the content of the file is to be NULL. so that we keep the top to bottam structure of the directory not the file content.

Not in one command. If you copy or sync a file, it will be as is. You have to do some scripting to accomplish that: for example copy the directory structure with the rsync command, then find the files inside the original structure and touch them (that is create empty) inside the new one.

thanks everybody :)